Bitter taste

PUBLISHED: 12:35 31 July 2007 | UPDATED: 21:46 29 May 2010

AQQALUK Lynge, the leader of Greenland s Inuit community, seems to be a decent and fair minded person. And his desire to help fight climate change is, of course, very honourable. Unfortunately, his hijacking by SSE does leave a somewhat bitter taste in t

AQQALUK Lynge, the leader of Greenland's Inuit community, seems to be a decent and fair minded person. And his desire to help fight climate change is, of course, very honourable.

Unfortunately, his hijacking by SSE does leave a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth.

During a BBC interview last week, Mr Lynge was asked why he did not go to China or India to express his concerns - he said SSE wanted him to highlight the threat posed to his homeland by climate change and the growth of aviation at the Stansted public inquiry.

However, the facts tell a somewhat different story. The well respected Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change recently stated that air travel accounts for two per cent of global CO2 emissions, and they expect this to rise to about five per cent by 2050.

This is in stark contrast to the contribution and rapid increase expected from the growing economies of both India and China.

Perhaps his time and air miles would have been better spent talking with these two nations after all?

Also, he said his plane journey to the inquiry was necessary, while the vast majority of flights from Stansted weren't.

That sort of arrogance does his cause absolutely no good whatsoever.

Again, if he checked the facts he'd soon discover that more people travel from Stansted to visit friends and family than any other UK airport - hardly pointless - while many other leisure passengers explore the world and attend cultural, religious and sporting events.

Just look at the 40,000 scouts from all over the world visiting Essex at the moment. Even our well-earned two weeks in the sun away from the stress of work and enjoying quality time with our families is essential to many.

If Mr Lynge sticks to the facts and doesn't allow himself to be used by those with other agendas at play, I'll happily do all I can to live a balanced and respectful lifestyle - including flying every now and again.